Author: Dave Towne

Appraisal Bias Mantra is Largely False Reporting 16

Appraisal Bias Mantra is Largely False Reporting

Just How Commonplace Is Appraisal Bias?  Folks, about the only entity examining in depth the details behind all the allegations about appraisers being inherently biased is the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) Housing Center. They are proving that most of the allegations are mostly a dump truck load of bovine substance. Click here for their latest expose. Report: Just How Commonplace Is Appraisal Bias? – theMReport.com Within this report are these statements from AEI: “When comparing appraisals for people of color to those for non-Hispanic white people within the same geographies, a new study by the American Enterprise Institute’s (AEI) Housing...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisers News

Reality of Today's Appraisal Environment; Discriminatory Falsehood 10

Reality of Today’s Appraisal Environment

Proving discriminatory activity is hard, which is probably one reason HUD is dragging their collective feet in resolving the filed complaints.  The real scourge of what’s been happening to appraisers for the past 5 years (yes, it started prior to the last election) has been revealed by Mr. Isaac Peck, in this article. You really need to read it, perhaps again, if you saw it come through your email on Wednesday October 25. Isaac has allowed me to “re-broadcast” his article. Yes, it’s a ‘sales promotion’ but it contains critical information appraisers need to know about. The first paragraph, contained...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisal Organizations / Appraisers News / HUD / The US Department of Housing and Urban Development

Mortgage Application Volume Nearing Historic Low 32

Mortgage Application Volume Nearing Historic Low

Appraisers, I’m almost reluctant to distribute this article, but the reality is what it is. Per the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), the loan application volume is at another low point in our history. The article in Mortgage News Daily titled “Mortgage Application Volume at Lowest Levels Since 1996” in this link provides context. For a related perspective, the article contains a graph, which can be expanded to show mortgage rates and application volume for decades. The brown line in the graph shows 30 year mortgage rates – since early 1971. The light blue indicates the loan application volume, which corresponds...

AMC / Appraisal / Appraisal Management Companies / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / Trending

The Unbiased Reality of Census Tract Data Dump... Open Letter to FHFA 11

The Unbiased Reality of Census Tract Data Dump… Open Letter to FHFA

Folks, the following letter was sent to FHFA by an appraiser I know. It was sent in response to the ‘first’ data dump FHFA made which uses CENSUS TRACT data to try to convince others that appraisers are biased by using ‘people demographics’ contained in Census Bureau info. You can find that ‘dump’ here. The writer of that first FHFA dump was identified by name, and included an email address. So the appraiser wrote a respectful email to Mr. Russell. It turns out, shortly after this FHFA document was released, Mr. Russell left FHFA. So this nice letter sent several...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / Automated Valuation Models / AVM / Fannie Mae - Freddie Mac

Isn't that Just PAVEY! PAVE Response and Marcia Fudge 16

Isn’t that Just PAVEY! PAVE Response and Marcia Fudge

Folks, the American Enterprise Institute Housing Center has been, to date, the only major voice in the wilderness I’ve seen publicly defending appraisers and the appraisal process. They have refuted most of the highly touted ‘studies’ promoted by Dr. Andre Perry and others, which the current administration has considered the gospels of appraiser intolerable performance. The Biden-created ‘black oriented’ 13 agency PAVE Taskforce, co-chaired by HUD Secretary Marcia L. Fudge, who is a black lady, issued another report recently. AEI’s response to that is in the PDF below. Please read it. Meanwhile, Ms. Fudge recently appeared at the 75th Annual...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / Fannie Mae - Freddie Mac / Federal Housing Administration / FHA

Those Pesky Words... Words Considered Biased 24

‘Pesky’ Words. Keeping Appraisers out of Language Purgatory

Appraisers, on July 17, 2023, a document from Freddie Mac was circulated to numerous appraisers around the US which identified certain words and other info that can be considered to be ‘BIASED’ in appraisal reports. Here is the Link to the Bulletin. We need to step back for a moment and carefully analyze and consider why that was done, and what it means to appraisers. In many ways, appraisers forget the purpose of the appraisal assignment – which is to value real estate. In other words, the physical structures tied to the land. But too often, elements of personal or...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / Fannie Mae - Freddie Mac / Federal Housing Administration / FHA

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Is Overlooked by HUD Secretary Marcia Fudge 19

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Is Overlooked by HUD Secretary Marcia Fudge

Marcia Fudge, the Secretary of HUD, decided to convene a special meeting of master minds with absolutely no real diversity, equity or inclusion included, with the intent of “closing the racial gap and increasing access to homeownership in African American communities.” Appraisers, all the racial mud-slinging against appraisers by the current government is extremely disheartening toward our honored profession. The people ‘in power’ over the last few years have been fond of image building and acronyms, believing those items will have magical influence over property values, and how people conduct themselves. One of these is named DEI, which stands for...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / HUD / The US Department of Housing and Urban Development / Trending

GLA Adjustment Process: - Adjusting the Full Difference vs. a Threshold Amount 79

GLA Adjustment: Adjusting Full Difference vs a Threshold Amount

Appraisers, on Thursday, before the Memorial Day holiday, I circulated across the US an email asking for response to a simple two question survey about how you “adjust” the GLA square footage between the Subject and Comparables. The questions: adjust 100% of the square foot difference, or adjust the difference after a ‘threshold’ square foot amount (meaning not the full 100% difference). I received a respectable number of responses compared to emails sent out, and also posted to 3 different web forums, nearly 200 replies. So that’s enough to validate the percentage of both responses, and report the trends. As...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisal Software / Appraisers News / Trending

Sale Price versus Appraised Value Disconnect 8

Sale Price vs Appraised Value Disconnect

How can it be said that valuing a property lower than its eventual sale price based on current market evidence is tantamount to BIAS?  The article titled “FHFA Data Fueling Looks into Appraisal Bias” was in the Inside Mortgage Finance Publications e-newsletter on 4/06/23. The Federal Housing Finance Agency is a is a critical provider of the data necessary for oversight, enforcement and research, FHFA Director Sandra Thompson noted during a discussion in late March. According to aggregate statistics from the Uniform Appraisal Dataset released by the FHFA, roughly 57% of appraisals were above the contract price in 2021. Just...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / CFPB / Consumer Financial Protection Bureau / Federal Housing Finance Agency

Speed Regardless of Accuracy Under the Banner of Modernization 14

Speed Regardless of Accuracy Under the Banner of Modernization

Appraisers, something – comparing and contrasting – dawned on me last week, after reading another news release titled “Dean Kelker: Appraisal Modernization is Starting to Gain Momentum“, which is basically pushing an “Enterprise” singular ‘agenda’ of valuation speed regardless of accuracy. Under the banner of “modernization.” VA does not demand appraisers complete assigned appraisal assignments extraordinarily quickly. They give appraisers 7 – 10 days (depending on location) to submit the report after assignment. VA expects good quality and accurate information. FHA/USDA/ONAP also expects appraisal accuracy using an inspection protocol that many appraisers object to, and some choose not to do...

AMC / Appraisal / Appraisal Management Companies / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / Fannie Mae - Freddie Mac

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